7/25/98 Saturday Day 92...
Tour went off great with about thirty people there from as far away as
California, Florida and Texas. Even had one couple from Mexico. As soon as the
tour was over I went home, changed clothes and headed out to Garrison to pick up the bike.
When I got there I took it for a ride before loading it up. I think that not
taking it for a ride last time was a mistake, so this time I hit the highway. It
still backfired! When I got back Marlow went for a ride and came back a bit
disgusted. He pulled it in the garage and dissassembled the left carberatur.
He took it completely apart and cleaned the whole thing. The bike ran better but it
still seemed like there was a lack of power on the left side so he changed out the spark
plugs and replaced a cracked carburator intake boot. One of the three things seems
to have fixed the problem and the bike ran fine. I took it out to the highway and it
was smooth as can be.

Got the bike home and of course had to go for a ride. The bike ran
perfectly. <I am knocking on wood as I type this> The UDF was in full
force tonight. Stopped for gas and had to talk to folks. Stopped at the video
store and had to talk. Went to Wal-mart and had to talk. Grocery store, more
talking. Riding through Carlton Minnesota where "Carlton Days" are being
held and I heard "Sheldon" yelled from the beer tent. Drove around the
block, parked the bike, and went in to see who was yelling. Turned out the be the
ex-President of a motorcycle club that I used to be involved with. I am sure that I
still have my patch around here somewhere. Once in you never really leave. We
just got older and the young "turks" now are the club. More chatting with
him and his wife. It was a great UDF day and it felt good to be back in the swing of
things with everything working fine.

7/26/98 Sunday Day 93...
Went for a nice ride in the country around Carlton Minnesota. Ran about
100 miles total without problem. It is running so very good. <I'm not
superstitious, but there is no reason to take chances so I am of course knocking on wood
again> Power rolls on quite smoothly and it is quite a bit quieter with the new
starter on. The problem was not the starter gears but rather the bearing inside the
starter seems to have gone out. Marlow showed it to me and it had tons of slop in
it. He didn't have another one in stock so he pulled one off of another new
motorcycle he had on the showroom floor. Awefully nice of him to do that so that I
could have the bike for the Moto Guzzi Rally this week.

The Guzzi Rally starts Friday but I am leaving right after work on
Wednesday. I really need to get away so I hope to get there early and relax a bit.
I know that the organizers of the rally will be arriving on Thursday and they
should find me set up when they get there. I had planned on bringing the Guzzi down
in the back of the pickup and the Ural on a trailer that I had borrowed from our
Controller at work. There are some lighting problems on the trailer but I figured I
would work it out by the time I left on Wednesday. I took the trailer along when I
went to pick up the bike yesterday but it turned out the bike is about two inches too wide
to fit in the trailer. We had measured it but we must have used a "short"
tape measure. Oops... Bob Talarico, the ex-club-President that I mentioned on
yesterday's report volunteered to let me borrow one of his big trailers. He said
that he often carries four Harley dressers on it at once so the Guzzi and the Ural should
both fit on the trailer. Now I just have to connect with him to pick it up.

My friend Peter Youngblood and his wife Sarah, who I know from the Moto
Guzzi list, recently moved from Florida to Minneapolis and they were in Duluth this
weekend. They stopped by and were as facinated by the Ural as everyone else has
been.

You may not hear from me here from Wednesday to next Monday but I am
bringing my laptop along so hopefully I will get to at least type my reports and then
upload them when I get back next week.

7/27/98 Monday Day 94...
Picked up the trailer from Bob Talarico and it is a monser. A 16 footer, heavy as
heck, but it easily holds the Guzzi and the Ural. Son #1 came over and we spent some
time trying to sort out the wiring. Lights didn't work at all when I got it
home. By the end of the night we had most of them working.

7/28/98 Tuesday Day 95... The
trailer and truck are loaded and I am off to the Wisconsin Moto Guzzi Rally in the
morning. Laptop will be with but I doubt that I will even touch a computer.

7/29/98 Wednesday Day 96...
At Rally...

On the road in Wisconsin cheese country, enroute to the Wisconsin Moto Guzzi Rally, with
Guzzi on front of trailer and Ural on rear.